Picturing history: Robert Scott Lorimer

On occasion, “Picturing History” features men and women who have done much to acquire, restore and preserve LDS Church historical sites. The contributions of Wilford C. Wood and Florence Jacobsen, for example, have been noted in the past.

One of the giants in this connection is Robert Scott Lorimer, particularly during the period when he served as president of the Riverton Wyoming Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lorimer’s leadership brought about the acquisition of a number of sacred sites associated with the handcart pioneers.

Perhaps more important was the initiation of what has come to be known as the "Second Rescue" — that is, searching for the names of those pioneers and their descendants and then performing sacred ordinances vicariously in the temples for those individuals, who numbered in the thousands.

These images show Lorimer when he was honored by the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation in 2013. Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, attended the banquet.